Prince of Heart- Ladies and gents, this story hit fifty followers after the last chapter. Like, that's pretty a-okay in my book, and frankly, fucking fantastic to me as a writer that people actually enjoy the stuff I enjoy to write. So thank y'all for sticking around with this story, and I can only hope that I can continue to write a quality story about a smol fish-guy and his wacky escapades in existentialism and destruction.

Eridan let out an audible sigh, one almost seeming wistful and content, as he placed his chin on his hands. "man i wwas fuckin awwesome."

Aranea chuckled, mindlessly playing with a set of cards she had picked up while telling the stories. "Cronus and Meenah seem to think so. You made an impression for the ages on a lot of sea dwellers with your romanticised tales of 8ravado and hostile takeovers. Alas, they don't understand the term, "the 8igger they are, the harder they fall," and 8oy, did you fall hard."

"thats bullshit i wwas great wwhy wwould i fall from grace?"

"You would 8e surprised. With you taking over every town and city outside of the capital city's jurisdiction, the que-" Aranea was interrupted when something from her sylladex started buzzing, and she pulled out a small device, a blue phone with a painted on web around it. Her blank eyes glazed over it, and she frowned in a concerned matter. "Rufio, you don't have to message me for permission for going to the bathroom."

The Prince and Sylph directed their attention to the Rogue, whom was uncomfortably sitting in his chair with his phone out. "oh well you know doll… 1 d1dnt want to 1nterrupt your story… because cronus ancestor k1nd of scares me."

Aranea rolled her eyes. "Well you can go. I have to put a pin in this story for the moment anyway."

"wwhat?" Eridan complained, letting his hands fall to the table. "wwhy? i wwanna hear the rest."

Aranea reached over and gave his hand a squeeze. "I know you do. 8ut I've kept you here pretty long and you're going to wake up soon enough."

Rufioh screeched his chair as he got up, and trotted out of the room as Eridan kept his attention to the Sylph. "oh fuck that. cant i just stay here for all time."

"Eridan?" Aranea asked. "Why don't you want to 8e with your living friends? You're getting them 8ack slowly, aren't you?"

"yeah yeah i guess so. but ivve been havvin this wweird feelin. like im livvin a life not meant for me."

Aranea squeezed his hand a little tighter. "Where is this coming from? Your life seems to 8e 8ack on track, and a lot of your deceased friends would kill to 8e in your position."

"i dont knoww. i guess i just feel like i dont really deservve to be alivve you knoww? after evverythin i did evveryone i killed wwhy am i the one sittin here? wwhy am i the one flyin to the neww session and not tavv or nep or evven fuckin vvris? wwhat havve i done in the past sweep to justify it?"

Aranea pursed her lips. "Is that what this is a8out? Eridan, that's just how life turns out sometimes; people who seem like they didn't deserve a second chance get one, whilst those innocents are taken from the world too soon. 8ut, I don't think that is the case for you!" The Sylph scooted her chair around the corner of the oval-shaped poker table, seating herself next to the Prince. She reached over and grabbed his hand again. "You have made some terri8le decisions, yes, 8ut that doesn't mean you deserve to die from them. I mean, whatever you did, that clown friend of yours did ten times over, and he's still going strong, isn't he?"

"yeah the wwhole kismesis business isnt as fun as it wwas wwith vvris. gam is a lot more abusivve than she wwas."

"8ut I don't think he has hang up a8out this sort of thing, you know?"

Eridan sighed, "mmm i guess. its just like things movved so fast back in the game wwith fef abandonin me no one vvisitin my planet and then the wwhole jack situation." He let out a hefty sigh again. "now wwith the meteor and the neww session and the ghosts it all just feels like," he looked up at the spider troll, "maybe i havvent growwn the wway i wwanted. like im lookin at the humans and my friends and theyvve all growwn to embrace themselves or wwhatevver the fuck and im just still me. wwith the stupid coloured hair and the ridiculous cape and wworst of all i still fuckin think all that shit is the bees goddamn knees."

Aranea scoffed, "Do you really 8elieve that? Eridan, the very fact that you're having these feelings of existentialism is proof enough that you've come a long way from that lonely Prince on Alternia."

"its not only that though. like theyvve growwn physically as wwell. a sweep does wweird shit to teenagers you knoww. all of them are gettin wweirdly intimate with each other and no one but kar evver spends time wwith me. not countin gam cause all he tries to do anymore is get me to take my shirt off and i dont wwanna fuckin do that for him of all people."

"8ut then look at you! 8elieve it or not, you've grown a 8it yourself, increasing your muscle mass and such. Listen, everyone changes, whether they want to or not. I was always this nerdy little exposition fairy, 8ut then over time my physical appearance took a change for the 8etter and suddenly I find my friends and complete strangers hitting on me, yet never really giving a damn a8out my interests."

"wwell fuckin brag about it. its hard to evver imagine wwhen you wwerent stunnin."

Aranea chuckled, "Almost as smooth as our resident Bard, Eridan."

Eridan looked at her, confused, before realising his unintentional flirtation and half smiling. "i do my best."

"The point is, you've changed Eridan. For the 8etter, I'd say. And there has 8een something I've 8een tossing around lately, ever since Meenah ran off and practically a8andoned me. Cronus did speak a little truth, I guess." She took a deep breath, looked down, and proceeded to exhale. "There are only a couple of dozen weeks until you enter the new session: and I have something going on that, if it goes to plan, will 8ring me into the new session as well."

"wwhat?" Eridan asked. "howw is that possible?"

"Eridan, those are details you're just going to have to trust me on. And tell to no-one. You got that?"

"yeah but wwhy tell me?"

"8ecause Eridan," the Sylph explained, smiling, "I know you've had some sort of red crush on me for a while, just like another Hope player."

Eridan didn't protest the claim, instead saying, "yeah i guess i do. no point in denyin it."

"8ut, unlike the Page of Hope, you've ensnared me, so-to-speak. And with my plan in action, there may 8e hope for a meet-up where the two of us are alive. And that 8rings me to the point. Seeing as we do 8oth have these sort of red feelings, I was wondering if you wanted to may8e... start going out?"

Eridan's heart skipped a beat, and he found himself at a loss for words. This was a situation he had always fantasised about, but one dream he had given up on after the death of Feferi. An awfully pathetic dream in his own opinion, but a dream none-the-less.

Eridan swallowed a gulp of saliva, and replied hesitantly, "is... is this a joke now?"

"No Eridan," Aranea assured, "I'm completely serious a8out this. I want to genuinely go out with you!"

"but uh is that evven possible to date a ghost?"

"Eridan, you can feel me touching your hand right now, can't you?"

"oh yeah i guess point taken. but about this plan of yours wwhatevver the fuck it is. how do you knoww it wwill wwork?"

"I don't. Hell, my plan's 8ased on an ur8an legend within the game. All we can really do… is hope."

Eridan thought for a second, putting all the pieces that were laid upon him together, before chuckling nervously and replying, "yeah fuck yeah of course. id lovve to start goin out!"

Aranea smiled happily back at him, letting out a big sigh of relief, and the two leaned into a flushed kiss, the first flushed one Eridan had had in his life. He found it much more comfortable than that of a caliginous show of affection, the quadrant he had become quite accustomed with. He found it weirdly… warmer that a caliginous kiss, with significantly less biting of his lip, which seemed to be a weird trend with his kismesis'. He actually found himself loving it much more, and he was already satisfied with how this newfound relationship. An actual matesprit.

Maybe he did have a reason to survive. Just maybe he had a genuine reason to get to the new session.